Welcome Brethern to the Temple of TombBridge, the establishment that gave its name to the local village. We believe in the Duel ideals of Peace and tolerance, i.e. if your peaceful we shall tolerate you, if not then how about a Duel!

This church has been both holy and unholy ground, been built, destroyed and rebuild on several occasions. Now it is the Church of the popular Saint Cuthbert ( although record service attandance was recorded when this building was the church of Fetherlu, godess of fertility ). Here within these walls you shall find enlightenment that may brinng you aid and comfort along your road ahead.

A Cerics lot is one of sacrafice and worship. Depending on which god you follow you have many things in common with other religions regardless od alignment. For instance all cleric seek to convert others to your faith, and other clerics for major brownie points.

No matter where you are your DM should give you a monestry or Church that serves as your parish, a home when you are at home. DMs should insist that you the Cleric return there once per year at least for a major religious event.

The DM may make level progression possible when a cleric returns to his/her pasrish. The combat skills and hit points may be awarded immediatly but the powers and spells only arrive after they have been conferred by a senior Cleric within your parish. This will happen at a formal ceremony lasting a week or so during which the ceric must worship and fast ( or something else in keeping with the choosen god ). This may sound like a hassel, but it has its advantages. For one it establishes the church as the center of the Clerics career and life, giving background depth and a wealth of NPC connections. You will find you Cleric becomes a much more rounded character with many the powr of an orginisation behind him.

Non-believers need converting. This is really the only excuse for wandering the land except for adventuring which must be for the beterment of the churches coffers. Remember, you are part of a larger body and your wealth is semi-communial. One should be warey when converting others to the faith because they may already have a god. Areas and towns where disaster or war has just struck are ripe for conversion, but arrive with an accolite. After you move on someone has to establish and run a temple to look after the faithful. Convert fighter types from the local law and army to give you new following protection from rivals and make the followers feel secure.

Your wealth of course is not really your own. What you keep you will of course spend wisley in the expansion and upkeep of the faith. What you give back to the church ( and your own parish in particular ) will stand you in good sted with your brethern. A good guideline is to give or the church to expect 50% of your money. DMs should not be to harsh and use this as an excuse to make life miserable for the PC Cleric. Instead the church and the Cleric should be assumed to be exempt from taxes in kingdoms where they are established, in return for loyalty and healing services of course but this does not involve the PC Cleric.

Inter-church rivalry is common place of course though it is not discussed in deapth anywhere. A good example of this is the existance in dark ages Europe of warrior monks. I refer to Early christian Ireland where the creation of superbly crafted holy objected and illuminated manuscripts ( the title birds on top of this page ) were labours of love. Yet many were lost and still being found in bogs today because rival monastic settlements of the same demoniation would attack each other fighting violent pitch battles in the open field. This is in stark contrast to the monastic life which was one of devoted worship and high learning. So war between different religeons will of course see the building of fortress monestries if only for the brethern own protection. Monks and Clerics will attack rivals with the goal of not only inflicting damage but looting holy relics, books, manuscripts and religeous objects such as symbols.